here is house speaker john boehner and treasury secretary timothy geithner. >> we are flabbergasted. we have seven weeks between election day in the end of the year. three of those weeks have been wasted. >> we are not going to extend an extension of the tax rates. we think they need to go back to those levels. if you don't do that, you have to ask yourself, whose taxes are we going to raise? were we going to find the money bring a balanced plan in place? jenna: senator lindsey graham, a republican known for reaching across the aisle, not looking at this with a great deal of optimism. >> i think we're going over the fiscal cliff. it's pretty clear that they have made this happen. they are not saving social security and medicare and medicaid from imminent bankruptcy. jenna: james is live in washington with more. reporter: yes, what is clear is increasingly, the two sides -- the obama, white house, senate democrats on one side, senate republicans on the other, there is a ticking clock involved here. they should be hitting their stride right about now. timothy geithner is trying to avoi